Eldoret - When war broke out he felt he should do something more. He was commissioned in the Army Medical Corps and was attached to the Pioneer Corps stationed at Kitale. While a missionary doctor at Kapsowar, a boy's leg was taken off by a crocodile and Dr. Ashton made the tremendous descent to the Kerio Valley and fetched him up to the Mission Station and saved his life. His wife, Marion, too was a clever doctor; they practised in Eldoret for many years and had a delightful family, three girls and a boy.

Web - Leigh Ashton qualified in medicine in 1931 and 3 years later he went to Kenya with the Africa Inland Mission. He arrived to establish a hospital at Kapsowar in the hills 250 miles from Nairobi on 16 October 1934 where conditions were very basic. ………… within 6 years he had developed outposts of medical care throughout the area, crossing mountainous terrain on bare tracks and cutting through dangerous forest paths. Once in his little car he spotted a huge angry buffalo. Should he brake and become a sitting target for its rage, or seek to outrun it? He put his foot down and squeezed a little more speed out of the car. The buffalo also took off, but Leigh just made it around a curve in the road before the beats whizzed past the car. ………. In 1935 his fiancée Marion joined him ………… the boat docked in Mombasa and a few hours later they were married in Mombasa Cathedral. …….. Their marriage lasted 65 years, Marion dying in 2000. When the second World War broke out Leigh Ashton became a doctor in the KAR. In 1945 he returned to work in a mission hospital at Maseno on Lake Victoria. A smallpox epidemic occurred at this time, but through modern medicine it was the last outbreak of the disease in East Africa. In 1946 he developed a general medical practice in Eldoret, 45 miles away …….. Established the Eldoret Christian Fellowship. Camps were started for young people, and there were visits to schools and Bible classes begun. …… In 1964 the Ashtons returned home and took up general practise ………. In 1970 Leigh Ashton spotted an advertisement for short-term surgeons to work in the hospitals of central Thailand. So at 62 years of age off they went again ……… Tonbridge Wells … Leigh Ashton died on November 17 aged 92 and is survived by their son and 3 daughters.